1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink composition for ink jet textile printing and to an ink jet textile printing method.
2. Related Art
Textile printing is a widely known process for applying color to fabrics. Known techniques for textile printing include screen printing, roller printing, rotary printing and transfer printing.
These techniques are, however, not suitable for producing small batches of a variety of products because these techniques require a different printing plate for each pattern of a design. In addition, it is difficult to respond quickly to recent fashion trends.
A method using an ink jet technique is an approach for overcoming these disadvantages of textile printing. In this method, ink is applied to cloth or any other material by using an ink jet technique. The ink used for the ink jet technique is required to have an appropriate surface tension and to be stably ejected. Unfortunately, this limits the dye content in the ink and results in insufficient depth of shade in the printed textile.
In order to solve this issue, for example, JP-A-2011-195680 discloses a method for dyeing cloth with an ink containing a reactive dye. However, although such an ink jet textile printing ink containing a reactive dye provides a printed textile having a high depth of shade, the resulting pattern is often not clear.